An Impact-FULL Anniversary: 30 Years Ago, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Made History!

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the dramatic collision between pieces of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter.

The comet was discovered on March 24, 1993, by the established comet-hunting team of Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy in a photo taken at the Palomar Observatory in California. It quickly became clear that this comet deserved special attention as it was orbiting Jupiter instead of the Sun. Further analysis revealed that the now-fragmented comet had probably been orbiting Jupiter for decades intact. But in July 1992, it got too close, and Jupiter’s intense gravitational forces broke the icy body’s nucleus up into a string of pieces that were put on a collision course with the giant planet.

Once the probability of a collision was clear, astronomers and scientists across the globe prepared for an unprecedented event – the first observed collision of two solar system bodies.

From July 16 to July 22, 1994, at least 21 separate fragments impacted Jupiter’s atmosphere and put on a stunning and revealing show for telescopes on Earth and in space. Conspicuous and impressive scars soon dotted the planet’s Southern Hemisphere. The largest chunk, identified as Fragment G, struck on July 18^th and left a massive dark spot.  

To learn more about Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 and the team of comet hunters that discovered it, we invite you to check out episode 2 of Explore Scientific's StarChasers series for an overview of this impactful event as well as Sky's Up Magazine's special Women in Astronomy Issue for an interview with the late Carolyn Shoemaker. See below for links to both of these resources!